Unlocking the genetic potential of Florida's economically important, vulnerable, and critically imperiled native palms: A transcriptomic landscape analysis

Authors: Nageswara Rao, Madhugiri; PRASAD, GANDAHM - Louisiana State University; VAISHALI, GOPALA - Oak Ridge Institute For Science And Education (ORISE); DANIEL, TUCKER - Montgomery Botanical Center; AMIR ALI, KHODDAMZADEH - Florida International University; NIRANJAN, BAISAKH - Louisiana State University

Submitted to: Annals of Biotechnology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/22/2026
Publication Date: 6/29/2026
Citation: Nageswara Rao, M., Prasad, G., Vaishali, G.M., Daniel, T.A., Amir Ali, K., Niranjan, B. 2026. Unlocking the genetic potential of Florida's economically important, vulnerable, and critically imperiled native palms: A transcriptomic landscape analysis. Annals of Biotechnology. 9(1):1033.

Interpretive Summary: Florida’s native palms are essential to the state’s natural ecosystems and ornamental plant industry, yet efforts to protect and improve them have been limited because very little genetic information exists for these species. This lack of basic biological knowledge makes it difficult to conserve rare palms, develop stress tolerant plants, and support a sustainable landscaping industry threatened by habitat loss. This study created the first large-scale genetic resource for three important native palms, viz., Pseudophoenix sargentii, Sabal miamiensis, and S. palmetto, by sequencing and analyzing thousands of genes from their leaves. This accomplishment revealed how these species differ in traits related to stress tolerance, growth, and metabolism, and identified valuable molecular markers that can be used to track genetic diversity and guide breeding. By providing these foundational genetic tools, the study helps scientists, conservationists, ecologists and plant breeders better understand how native palms survive harsh conditions. This new knowledge will support conservation of endangered species, improve selection of resilient ornamental palms, and strengthen Florida’s nursery and landscaping industries for the future.

Technical Abstract: Native palm species are important components of Florida’s coastal ecosystems and ornamental horticulture, yet genomic resources for these taxa remain limited. In this study, we performed a comparative transcriptomic analysis of three native Florida palms, Pseudophoenix sargentii, Sabal miamiensis, and Sabal palmetto, to generate foundational molecular resources and examine transcriptional divergence among species. RNA sequencing of leaf tissues produced over 654 million raw reads of which approximately 577 million high-quality reads were retained after filtering. De novo assembly yielded 455,094 contigs that were further filtered to 82,949 transcripts representing 42,834 non-redundant unigenes. Differential expression analysis revealed substantial transcriptional divergence among species, with 6,038 differentially expressed unigenes (DEUs) identified between the two Sabal species and more than 27,000 genes distinguishing each Sabal species from P. sargentii. Functional annotation and gene ontology enrichment analyses indicated that many DEUs were associated with metabolic processes, transcriptional regulation, and stress-response pathways. Transcriptome mining also identified 10,145 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 23,876 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within expressed gene regions, providing valuable molecular markers for future genetic studies. Collectively, this study provides the first comprehensive comparative transcriptomic resource for these native Florida palms and establishes a foundation for future research on palm biology, conservation genetics, and the development of molecular markers to support germplasm characterization and marker-assisted breeding in ornamental palms.